Autobiographical Essay Help

[babs]

So, I have to write an autobiographical essay for the scholarships and bursaries that I'm applying for. However, I forgot to grab a template one...so I have NO IDEA as to what I should write.

Suggestions?

[mirium]

You should probably go back and find out the guidelines for each one, if you don't have them -- things like page/word limits, specific topics they want you to include, specific questions they want answered in the essay. Assuming you actually want a shot at winning, you'll have to write/adapt the essay for each application. A pain, but they really can tell whether you've written one generic essay for a bunch of applications or tailored it for them, and they do care.

Autobiographical, so it's all about you...not. It makes a better impression if you talk about how people/events affected you and shaped the person you are now; shows you're focused on and informed about the world around you, rather than just on what's going on inside your head.

You could start with the basic journalism questions: who, what, when, where, why, how? It helps me to think in terms of "I would be a different person if _____ had been different."

For example, to identify how the place you grew up in ("where" and a bit of "when") affected you, think about how you'd be if you'd grown up instead in the city/suburbs/country, or a different city/suburb/rural area in a different part of the country. What values did your community teach you, what ideas/things are important where you live, do you agree or disagree with the priorities and ideas around you, are there specific events that made you think that way? That shows you what the place you did grow up in gave you -- and you can put that in your essay.

(To use myself as an example, I grew up in a suburb of a university town in the 1960s. It was assumed that everyone, including children, would be knowledgable about and involved in the political issues of the day, and I had to decide for myself when and how to express my beliefs: was it disrespectful to disagree with an adult? Should I say nothing, or stay at home and write letters (to whom?), or distribute pamphlets door-to-door with adult supervision, or join peaceful street demonstrations, or join violent street demonstrations, or plot to blow up buildings? If I got caught in a riot, should I try to help someone who was getting beat up, or run away? These were not hypothetical questions; I was never invited to plant bombs, but I had to make a real life choice on each of the other questions at least once. It was also assumed that education was a permanent way of life, so I joined the high school Biology Club and for three years I spent more than 100 class-hours per year teaching grade schoolers about science (with 3 or 4 hours of preparation for each teaching hour). And I was lucky enough to spend many happy hours playing in nearby wooded areas, and got to see for myself how the flora and fauna and the earth itself were affected by weather and what humans did -- which has given me a lifelong awareness of how fragile our world really is.)

Then think about it from the angle of the other questions -- who, what, when, why, how. Your answers will probably end up answering more than one question at a time, which is fine -- this is just a way to help you think of what you want to say, by focusing on different aspects of your life. You have your own interests and aspirations -- where did they come from, how did they enter your life, what makes them attractive to you? It's good to describe specific events or people, rather than speak in generalities, because that makes Your Story more vivid for the reader -- compare "there were farms near where I grew up" with "my childhood home was so far on the edge of town that one day, a heifer got loose from a nearby farm and wandered into the neighborhood Tot Lot and charged at the swing set -- the dent she left in one of the support rods is still there."

Hope that helps, and good luck with your essays!

[babs]

Thank you SO MUCH Mirium! That really helped a lot!

[mirium]